Yesterday's Tomorrows
by knittingknots
Summary: Caught up in the danger of a land in civil war, how does the Inu-tachi adjust to a post-Naraku world? I/K, M/S Starts with Spoilers for Chapt. 558
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha or any characters created by Rumiko Takahashi_

**Yesterday's Tomorrow**

_**Chapter 1: Rediscovery**_

_**I met you walking**_

_**down yesterday's tomorrow,**_

_**winter giving way --**_

_**spring bloomed as you walked that road,**_

_**an unexpected surprise**_

It had been an amazing afternoon, InuYasha decided.

But now the day was growing late, and the sun had that honey color that signaled the approach of sunset. The hanyou stood outside of Miroku's comfortable house at the outskirts of the village, and watched Kagome as she handed one of Sango's twin daughters back to her friend.

"It's so good you're back with us, Kagome-chan," Sango said, taking her daughter. "So you like your aunt Kagome, don't you?" she cooed to the little girl. The girl looked bashfully at Kagome, and nodded her head.

"It's good to be here," said Kagome, hugging her friend. "There's so much I have to catch up on. So much has been going on!"

"Thank you for returning, Kagome-sama," Miroku said, turning and looking at his hanyou friend while balancing his other daughter in his arms. She was busy looking at Kagome, and then turning away. "She's my little flirt," he explained as he bounced her. "I'm afraid she's going to take much watching in far too few years."

Kagome smiled brightly at the child and wiggled her fingers, earning a chorus of giggles. "Your daughters are beautiful."

"Ah, but that's because they take after their mother," Miroku said, winning a smile from Sango.

InuYasha stood there, watching them, his amber eyes relaxed and at peace, his ears twitching a little at the babble of the twins. Speaking very softly, Miroku turned back towards Kagome and added very softly, "InuYasha has missed you deeply. I don't remember the last time I saw him this happy."

Kagome colored a little, looking at InuYasha, and smiling a bit, then nodded. "Thank you two for being his friends while I was gone. I'd hate the thought that he was truly alone."

Wrapping an arm around Sango, Miroku looked at his little family. "We owe you two a lot."

Shippou hopped into her arms. "I'm glad you're back, Kagome. I missed you. I have a whole lot of new tricks to show you, too!"

She hugged him. "We will see, my young Kitsune friend," said Miroku. "I seem to remember an elder priestess who was ready to purify you after your last demonstration."

Letting Shippou down, she said, "You can show me later, even if we have to sneak it." She ruffled his hair.

She waved one last time, then turned around and walked up to InuYasha, the late sunlight glinting in her hair, a half smile on her face. He smiled back as he watched her walking, thinking again how quickly everything in life could change.

This morning, life was gray and sad, like he was caught in a winter that never seemed to end in spite of the warm spring day. Three years had passed since the last time he had seen Kagome, exhausted and frightened, crying in her mother's arms. As the well dragged him back into his own time, he cherished the thought that at least she was safe, safe from the jewel, safe in the world where youkai didn't jump out at you without warning, safe where she could have the life that their year together had stolen from her. She was loved and protected, and that satisfied him somehow.

There were many long days and empty nights, though, when it wasn't enough. He would watch his friends grow in love and feel the hollowness inside of his own heart, and wondered once again if he was cursed. Then this afternoon, he saw her standing in the well, looking up at him. Her scent, the soft but strong feel of her hand in his as he helped her up was the thaw he always longed for, hoped for, believed in, but didn't dare dream about. She had returned to him.

With one final wave goodbye, the couple turned and left. They walked for a time in silence, stealing small glances at each other. Kagome reached out and took InuYasha by the hand, the way she used to do sometimes. The afternoon had been filled with happy reunions, vague discussion of plans, the busy chatter of friends long separated. InuYasha had yet to leave her side for more than a moment and she suspected she was never out of scent or hearing range. But this was the first chance since she returned that they had gotten a chance to be alone. It felt good, she decided, to be away from the noise and the well-wishes and curiosity, to be able to stand next to this man she bridged time to be with.

"InuYasha," she said after she realized they were not heading toward Kaede's. "Where are we going?"

He gave her a sheepish grin. "There's a place I come to when I need to be alone," he said. "It's new since you were here last. We're almost there."

They rounded a bend and moved into a clearing. There, sitting in the middle of it was a small hut, much like many of the huts in the village, plank roofed, with solid wooden walls and small windows.

"Is this yours?" she said, looking around.

InuYasha nodded. "I started building it after the twins were born," he said. "There were times when I sort of needed to get away from Miroku and Sango."

Kagome laughed. "I can believe that."

"I thought maybe you would like to come out here for a while to get away from everybody," he said, almost too softly.

She flashed him a smile, then walked around, looked around the porch, and ran her hand along the wall. "You did a nice job." Something at the location nagged at her. She could see the Goshinboko from where she stood, and she knew the well was nearby. Suddenly her eyes grew wide. "InuYasha - this is where Mama's house will be!"

He nodded. "I would sit here, sometimes and look up, and think how close I was to you, even if I couldn't see you." InuYasha's cheeks pinked a little, and he looked down at his feet as he admitted such an intimate fact about himself, but he looked back up when she reached out and touched his cheek.

"Sometimes, it seemed like you were so close to me, that if I reached out, I could touch you," Kagome said, a touch of wonder in her voice. "I knew you were still keeping me safe. You don't know how important that was, some days, for me to believe that. Now, maybe, I know why I could feel you."

He smiled back at her shyly as he opened the mat door for her and let her walk in first.

The room the door revealed was not much larger than her old bedroom, nearly empty except for a futon against the far wall and a couple of storage boxes. The dim light of late afternoon let Kagome find her way to the raised floor, and sit down and pull off her shoes. InuYasha walked over to the fire pit and began to start a fire. Shortly, with the skill that comes from long practice, the little house lit up from the fire. Glancing at Kagome who was shrugging off her sweater, he could feel the color rise in his cheeks as he fed sticks to the flickering flames. Kagome came up and sat next to him, and rested her cheek on his shoulder the way she used to do.

"I'm sorry I took so long to come back," she said. "You must have been terribly lonely."

He tossed in a larger stick then reached his arm around her waist, and pulled her closer. Suddenly, his throat felt dry, and he swallowed. "You're here now," he managed to say.

"I thought about you every day," she said.

He rested his cheek on her hair. "I thought about you, too."

The fire had begun to burn low. With a sigh, he broke his embrace, moved closer to the fire and added some larger pieces of wood. A piece popped and a tendril of sparks flew up as the wood settled. "That ought to hold us for a while."

He turned around and looked at her sitting there. She had drawn her knees up and was resting her chin on them, staring into the fire.

Her voice grew soft and far away. "I was so frightened, InuYasha. The fight with Naraku, then being caught in the Jewel's darkness for three days. I missed you so much, but for a long time I was too frightened to try the well. And when I did, it didn't let me through." She sighed. "I had nightmares a long time."

He moved next to her and wrapped an arm around her. "Kagome," he said. "I'm sorry."

She leaned back into his chest. "Don't be sorry, InuYasha. If it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have made it out of there, or made the wish that destroyed it.

"Before you showed up, the Jewel showed me a vision, the world it was offering me. Friends and school and family. In the vision I had, which felt so real, I always knew something was missing, but I didn't know what. It wasn't until I was walking by the sacred tree that I knew what was missing - it was you. The jewel was trying to trick me into choosing that life, for wishing for it. Funny thing was, that after I returned, that was the life I lived - school and friends and family. But there was always the emptiness, but this time I knew what was missing. I had changed and done too much to really belong. And I was living in a world without InuYasha. "

She moved slightly, looking up into his eyes. "This morning, I went to the well house. I realized, I think, that the reason the well wasn't working was because I had been too afraid - afraid of the monsters, afraid maybe, of growing up, of leaving my family. But I knew the one thing that I was not afraid of was being with you.

"I still had I don't know why, but the well must have known I was ready. I finished my schooling this week. I had honored my family. I had grown up. That world considers me an adult. All my must do's were done. Maybe the magic read my heart and knew now was the time. I looked into the well, and I could see the sky here, and feel the magic touch me. I was overwhelmed with the need to be with you. I talked with Mama, and she gave me her blessing, and then I jumped." She smiled softly at him. "When I landed, I looked up, and the first thing I saw was you. I knew I was home."

"Kagome," he breathed, then swallowed. InuYasha's throat felt constricted again as he looked at her in the firelight, how it touched her skin, cast highlights in her hair. At that moment he thought she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He snuggled her closer to him, took her hand in his. "When I was fighting to get to you, I found myself trapped in the Jewel, fighting the youkai in it. They tried to tell me that you were born to be absorbed by it, to fight through all time with Naraku, just like Midoriko. I told them like hell that was true. We had been born to meet each other. Everything good I have in life came because of you."

He sighed. "When I saw you there, floating in that blackness, I knew. Power didn't matter. Strength didn't matter. Just you. Only you. When I saw you fall into your mother's arms, surrounded by the people who loved you, I know you needed them, and they needed you, and I didn't even fight it when the well took me back. I just wanted you to be safe and happy."

"I'm happy now," Kagome said.

InuYasha brought her hand up to his face, rubbed it against his cheek. "Tell me you're really here," he said softly. "Tell me you're not going away."

"I'm really here, InuYasha. I'm not going anywhere unless you tell me to," she replied.

"Never," he said. His arms wrapped around her, pulling her to him tightly. "I'll never ask you to leave. I want you with me forever."

Kagome looked up into his eyes, eyes that were looking back at her with a desperate intensity. She reached up and cupped his cheek. He leaned into her hand, let his own hand cup the back of her head. Slowly, and for the first time, their lips touched, gently at first, but with a growing passion.

"Kami, woman, I've missed you so much," he breathed into her ear when they broke the kiss. "Life was nothing without you."

"InuYasha," she whispered. Their lips met again, tender, lingering.

"Be with me," he said, "Be with me, tonight, tomorrow, always."

"Always," she replied.


	2. Union

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha or any character created by Rumiko Takahashi

Lemon warning

**Yesterday's Tomorrows**

_**Chapter 2: Union**_

_From a tiny spark  
a great fire can roar to life.  
Watch the beginnings -  
The journeys of many miles  
Start with the first loving steps._

"Be with me," InuYasha said, finding himself lost in Kagome's blue-gray eyes. His heart pounded in his ears as he spoke. "Be with me, tonight, tomorrow, always."

"Always," Kagome replied.

A piece of wood in the fire pit loudly popped, exploding with a spray of sparks. Both InuYasha and Kagome turned to look, and she began to giggle.

"Oi, woman, what's so funny?" the hanyou asked. He unwound his arm reluctantly from around her to lean over towards the fire pit. Poking at the burning wood with a stick, he stirred it, and looked back over his shoulder. "Well?"

"It made me think of fireworks," Kagome said, smiling. "Our own private fireworks for our own private celebration."

"After all we went through, we deserve some fireworks," InuYasha said, amused. The light reflected redly off his silver hair, giving him an otherworldly glow as he tended the fire. He looked up at her, a touch of a smile on his face, his ears, with their twitching, giving away his nervousness. Satisfied with his work, he tossed the stick on top of the burning wood, kicking up a few more sparks, then walked back to where Kagome sat, taking a seat behind her. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he snuggled her up against his chest.

"InuYasha," she murmured. His arms around her waist swathed her in his sleeves, and his arched legs framed hers. Breathing deep, she let his woodsy scent wash over her, and felt the comfort of the touch of his youki cover them like a blanket. "I've missed you holding me," she said, relaxing against him.  
For a moment, they sat quietly and watched the fire. Then Kagome moved her left hand over one of his."I've dreamed of being with you like this," she said. "Sometimes, I would daydream about how I would get you somewhere all alone - maybe I'd fall into icy water or a winter storm and you'd have to take care of me, take my wet things off and get me warm." She laughed a little.

InuYasha pulled her a little closer. "I dreamed about you, too." He nuzzled the side of her face, his breath teasing the shell of her ear and she shivered. "Alone at night with no monk or Kitsune or slayer, just me and you sitting by the fire or by a hot spring under the full moon, me with my arms wrapped around you." He swallowed, and his voice grew husky. "In my dreams, it didn't stop there."

Pausing, he drew a deep breath. "I wanted you months before we fought Naraku, but I was so afraid that something was going to screw up our lives. I had to protect you, so I kept my dreams to myself. It was hard, damn hard. I wanted you so badly, but it was the right thing to do." He sighed. "But today, when I saw you at the bottom of the well, looking up at me, I knew. The time for dreams is over. Dreams aren't enough anymore. I want to do more than dream."

Kagome twisted in his lap to look at him. "Dreams aren't enough. When the well opened, I knew. That's why I'm here."

"Kagome," he breathed. His lips found the corner of her mouth, then trailed down her jaw to her neck, planting small kisses. Kagome made small pleasure noises as his mouth trailed down to the neckline of her blouse. Her neck bared to him stirred something deep within him, possessive and pleased.

Her hand slid to his thigh as she shifted in his arms, then stayed there, drawing little designs. "When you were dreaming of me," she asked, "What did you do besides hold me?"

"I dreamed of touching you in ways that made you feel pleasure. And I dreamed that you touched me to do the same."

"Show me," she said.

His hands loosened from around her waist, and he slid one hand up her torso and cupped her breast. "Is this all right, Koibito?" he asked. Arching into his touch, she nodded.

Kagome took his other hand, and slid it under the hem of her blouse and closed her eyes as his fingers gently explored the softness of her skin. His touch ignited something in her, like fire, and she moaned softly at the sensation, melting into his arms as he explored. He shifted her, cradling her in his arm, his free hand slipping under the band of her bra, pushing it up. He gently wrapped his hands around the breast revealed. Kagome cried out as his hand skimmed over her naked nipple. His lips found hers and he plundered her mouth as her arms wrapped around her neck.

"Kami, woman, I need you," he whispered. "I need to feel your skin next to mine, taste you everywhere, wrap myself around you."  
Opening her eyes, she reached out and touched his face, amazed at the intensity in his want-darkened eyes. She kissed him gently."Take me to bed, InuYasha."

With a hungry growl, InuYasha picked Kagome up and carried her across the room.

* * *

After a long and surprising day, Sango was enjoying a moment of peace. It was rare, nowadays, to find quiet time when the children were settled and there was no husband, hanyou or Kitsune to disturb the moment.

The main room of her house glowed with the light of the fire pit, and the oil lamp near the corner where she sat. In front of her, she had spread the futon, where the twins Noriko and Yasuko lay curled up next to each other, drowsy, but not quite asleep.

Her little son, fed and burped, slept next to her. Sango, smiling at her daughters, sat sewing by the light of the lamp. Although for a long time, she felt more comfortable with a weapon than needle and thread, she had discovered as a wife and a mother how much she needed to learn to use them. Her baby slayers were going through their garments quickly. She sang to the children while she worked.

"When the autumn comes,  
and the leaves fall red and gold,  
see the foxes play,  
dressing up before the cold.  
"I'm pretty!" they say  
with maple leaves in their hair.

"When the winter comes  
and the snow lies on the ground,  
foxes go to den --  
their tails wrapped tightly around  
their cold noses then,  
no room at home to play in.

"But when the spring comes,  
The foxes will run to play  
wearing wild flowers  
gathered on a sunny day --  
dancing for hours,  
happy for the new season."

"Foxes," murmured Noriko, who was the oldest of the twins. "Shippou."

"Sleep, baby," Sango said. Noriko nodded, and snuggled in closer to her sister.

"Happy for the new season. Yes, I think we're starting a new season," she murmured. "It's going to be nice having Kagome-chan back home."

The shoji door slid open, and Sango looked up from her work. Miroku stepped back into his house. Sango smiled as he entered, making a sign for him to be quiet. He nodded, closed the door softly as possible. Propping up his staff and dropping the brightly wrapped bundle he was carrying on the raised floor, he sat down on its edge to take his sandals off.

Sango, putting her sewing to one side, softly stood up and walked over, kneeling down next to him. "You're back sooner than I expected." Sango picked up the bundle. "Kagome-chan didn't want the clothes?"

Miroku smiled with a wry, knowing look. "Ah, Sango my dearest, that's the reason I'm back so soon. I didn't get the chance to ask her yet. She and InuYasha never made it to Kaede-sama's house." He pulled the first sandal off. "Nobody was there but Kaede and Rin. Kagome-sama had not been there since we visited earlier this afternoon. Shippou stayed to tell stories about his last exam and how he managed to scare some stingy merchant for maximum points. It was pretty funny, or I would have been back even sooner. "

"Do you think . . . " Sango said, a happy but uncertain look in her eyes.

"Do I think what?" Miroku replied, with a barely disguised smile. "You know if anything bad had happened, InuYasha would be tearing up all of Musashi by now to make it right. It's a pretty quiet night."

"Did they go somewhere else? Would she have?"

Miroku placed his two sandals together in the shoe niche. "You saw how they were looking at each other, Sango." His eyes twinkled. "Do you think they really wanted to go keep an old woman and a child company?"

"You think InuYasha would have taken her to his hut?"

He took his wife by the hand. "Well, they could be sitting under the Goshinboku, I guess, or some other place under the stars . . . but somehow, I don't want to walk up to Inu's hut and knock on the door right now. I suspect if I could drag them away from one another, I might not like the results."

She leaned into Miroku's shoulder. "I guess we'll find out tomorrow. But I'm glad for them. They deserve some happiness."

"I suspect you and Kagome will have a lot to discuss. It's going to be different. I don't know how we're going to deal with a happy InuYasha."

* * *

Standing next to the futon, Kagome pulled her shirt and bra off over her head. InuYasha watched and took a deep breath as she dropped the clothes on the floor.

Kagome smiled, but dropped her eyes, nervous under his gaze. "You can touch," she said after a moment.

InuYasha reached out for her with a shaky hand, tracing a path from her neck to her waist, across the velvet tip of her breast with a look of amazement on his face. Her eyes closed and she moaned as he touched her. "So soft," he murmured. He circled her with his arms, letting his hands learn the shape and feel of the woman in front of him. He pressed his forehead against hers. "You are the only person who ever asked me to touch."

She reached around to the back of her waist, unfastened the clasp and zipper, and let her skirt fall to the ground, then stepped out of her panties. "You're the only one I ever wanted to touch me." She reached for the knot in his obi.

He caught her hands. "Let me," he said.

Kagome knelt down and watched him disrobe. His body was lean and wiry, the body of a runner, warm and golden against his silver hair, unscarred in spite of the many times he had been wounded since she'd known him. He stepped out of his hakama, dressed only in his fundoshi and turned to look at her, his body flushed, his eyes hooded and smokey. A wave of want, almost painful, swept over her. She looked down suddenly, her cheeks flushing, as he reached to remove his undergarment.

It fluttered to join the pile of his other clothing and he dropped to his knees next to her. He took her face in his hands, kissed her tenderly. "Last night, I lay in the darkness, staring up at the night sky. I was so empty. And now, I am about to make you my wife. You have pulled the arrow out of my heart again"

He kissed her again, more heatedly

"Does this make me your wife, InuYasha?" Kagome asked.

"Damn right it does. We can get Miroku to pray some sutra to get the Buddha's blessing, and have Kaede-baaba say the words to get the Kami's blessing if you want, but from today until forever, you are the wife of my heart, Koibito. I love you so much."

His hands slid down her back, pulling her close to him, pressing his arousal against her. Kagome found it hard to think past the sensation of his skin touching hers, felt her hips buck against him as he pressed against her. She wrapped her arms around his neck tightly, showering his mouth, his jaw, his neck with little kisses.

InuYasha gently lowered Kagome down on the futon, her black hair fanned out behind her in a sable cascade, and covered her with himself, hovering over her as he rested his weight on his forearms. Her blue gray eyes looked up at him, heavy with want. Her lips were swollen from kisses. Her scent, her body, her spirit called him.

"You are so beautiful," he said, then kissed her deeply, their tongues dancing as the kiss deepened.

Kagome's hand reached up and rubbed the base of one of his ears, then moved to trace its edge. He moaned at the sensation, closed his eyes and leaned into the touch.

"Like that, do you?" Her voice was sultry, amused.

"Hmm." His mouth planted soft kisses along her jaw. His tongue traced the shell of her ear. He felt her shiver beneath him. "Like that, do you?"

She arched against him and his hips ground into her in response. His mouth sought her neck, trailing kisses down her throat. Laving her collarbone with his tongue, he traced fingertips along her skin until he found one of her breasts. He gently ran the palm of his hand over the tip until the nipple grew hard and erect. Sliding further down, he planted kisses in a trail until he found her other breast, circling the aureole with his tongue, then suckling on the nipple until she cried out in pleasing whimpers.

His hand slipped between her legs, caressing the soft skin of her inner thighs, brushing against her womanhood, hot and slick. She ground into his touch and moaned. Cupping his claws safely away, he touched her there with a knuckle until she cried out

Crawling back up her body, he kissed her hard and then rubbed his aching manhood against her wetness

"Please," she whispered.

Gratefully he sank into her wet velvet warmth and they became one for the first time.

* * *

The fire in the hut burned low while they lay intertwined, casting long shadows over the two. But the room glowed brightly for eyes who knew how to see it as InuYasha's youki swirled around the two lovers, glowing brightly red. As they became one, warm tendrils of pink light reached around the red, embracing it. When they climaxed, one right after the other, the light flared beyond the walls of the hut in a surge of power, rose red in their unity, able to be sensed for miles beyond the hut, but which quickly faded. To the unaided eye, all seemed as it was before. But some things would never be quite the same again.

Kaede sitting by her fire felt the pulse first, snapping her head up and almost dropped the cup she was drinking.

Rin, sitting next to her, looked up from the herbs she was sorting. "Is there something wrong, Kaede-sama?" she asked.

"No, nothing child. Not to worry. I just thought, for a moment, that perhaps we had a youkai visitor, perhaps Lord Sesshoumaru, but the aura I felt has gone away." She looked thoughtful. "I wonder . . . "

Much further away, Toutousai looked up from his forge. Suddenly he shuddered

"Damn." He looked around the bony, fumy room he used as a workplace. "Hey, Myouga, where are you?"

The flea youkai hopped onto his shoulder. "I'm here. What's wrong?"

"Something's up with the pup. You need to go check him out. It's been too quiet since Naraku died. Maybe we'll get something interesting to do."


	3. Morning Tales

Disclosure: I do not own InuYasha or any of the characters created by Rumiko Takahashi

Yesterday's Tomorrows

Chapter 3: Morning Tales

* * *

Light follows the dark,  
Sunrise follows the midnight.  
I will remember  
the promise of the moon light  
and celebrate the dawn sky

* * *

It was a beautiful Spring morning as Kaede made her way down the path to the edge of the village, collecting basket under her arm. The early morning sunlight glinted through the branches of the trees as she walked down the quiet way. The path she walked was scattered with cherry blossom petals. Looking up, she could see the blossom time was nearly over to be replaced with leaf time.

"What's that?" asked the small girl walking with her. Kaede paused and waited while Rin stopped and knelt by some early spring wild flowers, pale blue.

Bending over her shoulder, Kaede said, "Ah, that is Haru-rinndou. Isn't it pretty? I always thought they look like blue stars."

Rin looked at the stand of the small wild gentians as if trying to memorize them. "Can you use them?" she asked.

"Yes, girl. You can eat the leaves and the roots make a tonic." Kaede said as they resumed their walk. "But I like them because when they bloom, they remind me that spring has come and summer won't be long. I am glad the winter is over."

"Me too, Kaede-sama," said Rin. She began to sing softly.

"Spring, spring comes again,  
As icy streams begin to flow,  
and the pale yellow  
Fuki blossoms through the snow.

"Spring, spring comes again,  
the lark is singing her song.  
Though cold winds still blow  
Flower time will not be long."

Rin looked at the path they were taking. "Do you think Sango-sama will let me hold Nao-chan?" she asked as the thatched roof of the house they were heading towards came into view.

"She might," said the miko. "I imagine it counts on what she's doing today."

"Do you think Sesshoumaru-sama will come by today? I want to tell him about Kagome-sama coming back to stay."

"I do not know, dear, but I suspect there's not much that passes by in this area that he doesn't know something about."

Rin looked pensive.

"What is it, dear?" Kaede asked.

Rin sighed, her dark eyes looking off into the distance. "Sometimes," she said. "I wonder if he's lonely."

"I do not know, child," Kaede replied.

* * *

It was the sunlight filtering into the room that woke him.

"Something's different," he murmured as he came to awareness and a feeling of warmth and contentment flooded him. InuYasha blinked his eyes open, to see pale shoulder and black hair, and found himself spooning a warm body close to him, his hand wrapped across her middle protectively.

"She's really here," he whispered, a touch of amazement in his voice. "She came back to me."

For a long time he just lay there, breathing in the sweet scent of the woman in his arms, a scent now blended together with the fragrance of their union. A smile touched his lips as he admired how their hair, silver and black, fell intertwined together across the bedding. He could feel the heat pooling in his middle as images from the night before crossed his mind and he found himself moving his hand across the softness of her tummy, and up to the swell of her breast, enjoying the feel of the satin of her skin and the delight of how it felt to be able to hold her like that. She stirred a little, and he nuzzled the crook of her neck, and planted little kisses on the top of her shoulder. In response, she snuggled closer.

Kagome rolled onto her back, still mostly asleep, eyes fully closed. He studied how the light touched the planes of her face, the line of her eyebrow, the shape of her lips, the relaxed contentment she radiated. He planted a light kiss on her forehead. For a moment, he was content to lie there, enjoying how everything that mattered in his life had changed since yesterday morning. Then suddenly, he sighed deeply, as if realizing something, and propped himself up on one elbow. "Kagome," he said softly.

"Mmmm . . . InuYasha, " she muttered.

"Good morning, Koibito," he said.

He pulled back the hair covering her ear and neck, touched his tongue to the shell of her ear. She jerked a little at the sensation. Trying to pull away and move her ear out of his reach, she grumbled and wrinkled her nose. "Tickles."

"You need to wake up, Kagome. They're going to come looking for us soon if we don't show up."

She rolled over onto her stomach. "Don't care."

InuYasha pulled back the blanket and kissed the tops of her shoulder with little kisses. "Oi, woman - did you forget what a tease and hentai Miroku is? Just cause he's married hasn't changed his sense of humor any. You want him to find you in bed like this?"

Kagome grabbed the blanket back, but sat up, holding the cloth around her, and smiled a crooked grin at the hanyou next to her. "He'd tease us all day, and maybe all week."

"You know it," InuYasha replied. "Maybe for a month."

She reached out, and touched him gently on the cheek. Her smile got very large."Good morning, InuYasha. What an amazing thing to wake up to find that I'm really here." She leaned over and kissed him lightly on the lips, then suddenly pulled away. "It's cold in here," she said, as she pulled the blanket closer.

InuYasha sat all the way up and reached for his clothes. "A little cool, but I doubt we'll be back for a while, so I didn't want to start a fire. Hurry up and get dressed. There's nothing for breakfast in this house. Maybe Sango will have some rice left for breakfast. She makes good soup, too."

"Sango make good soup? I thought you hated her cooking," Kagome said as she turned away a bit as he stood up. She could feel herself blushing at seeing the sunlight touch his lean, golden body, but snuck glances as his muscled runner's legs disappeared into the baggy red of his hakama that had always disguised the beauty and grace of his form. She reached over and grabbed her clothes, and with her back to him slipped into her under things and pulled on her skirt.

InuYasha fastened his kosode. "Well, she's had a lot of practice in three years. I think Kaede and some of the other women felt sorry for Miroku and taught her some stuff."

Kagome turned her head as she picked up her blouse, and found InuYasha watching her. A boyish grin touched his face as he met her eyes, as if he were caught doing something he wasn't supposed to. She smiled reassuringly, and pulled the top on over her head.

He helped her to her feet, wrapped his arms around her. "Thank you," he said.

"What for, InuYasha?"

His eyes looked into hers, caring, intense, and for once, happy. "For remembering. For caring enough to come home. Just for being Kagome."

After a chaste kiss, and a moment to let her grab her sweater and slip into her shoes, he led her out of the house.

* * *

Miroku to the front of his house. He had placed a small stone image of Kwannon, the Bodhisattva of mercy, there not long after building the house, and would come out in the early morning to sit near it and meditate.

Placing a flower in front of the statue, he knelt, bowed and gashoed, and in a low voice, chanted:

"Light shines out, pure, clear,  
into the realms of darkness,  
compassion's bright hand.  
Flowers and incense  
we offer with our own hearts,  
O Bodhisattva,  
You who vowed to empty hell  
before you would rest,  
O Practitioner of mercy,  
who brings the boat of compassion,  
rescue those beings  
drowning in suffering's sea,  
caught up in their long dreaming,  
burdened with karma."

With a quirk to his lips, he said, "And, O merciful Kwannon, if you would, keep an extra eye out on my friends. They've been through a lot, and if anybody deserves a moment of happiness, those two do. After all, I wouldn't have near the happiness I have today if they hadn't been there for me."

He turned to face the sunrise, and assumed the lotus posture. Slowly, he let the warmth of the sun touch his face, felt his breathing deepen, and his awareness expand as he began his meditation. Suddenly, his quiet was interrupted.

"Any sign of them yet?" Sango asked, peeking her head out of the door. "I just finished feeding Nao, and I'd like to get started on breakfast. The girls will be up soon."

"No, not yet," Miroku replied. "Go ahead and start."

He took a deep breath, following it with his mind as he filled his lungs and let it out, trying to recapture the right frame of mind. He realized it was totally fruitless, when he felt a familiar weight jump on his shoulder.

"So where are they?" Shippou asked.

"With each other, I presume," Miroku replied, attempting to keep his face in a serene look, but failing as a small grin touched his lips. "Patience, Shippou."

"But shouldn't we go look? What if something happened?" The Kitsune, worried rather than considering the other implications of the young couple's absence, crawled into his lap and made big sad eyes at him.

Miroku sighed, and patted the fox on his head, and tugged his pony tail. "A wise man once said: 'Dig the pond without waiting for the moon. When the pond is finished, the moon will come by itself.'"

"Oh," Shippou said, then turned his head to one side, thinking. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, my fine Kitsune, it means that our pond is Sango-chan's excellent cooking. And when they get hungry, they will show up. We don't have to do anything."

Shippou, crossing his arms, looked up at him with narrowed eyes. "You're just afraid that InuYasha will get mad if you bother them."

"And there's that, too, Shippou-kun. An angry hanyou does not make for a happy day, especially when Kagome-sama's been gone so long. They have a lot to talk about," Miroku said. "I tell you what. If they aren't here by lunch time, we'll look for them." He grinned at the Kitsune. "But if we find them, you're the one who gets to go interrupt them first."

Shippou swallowed. "Uh . . . maybe we should wait."

Miroku nodded sagely. "A wise decision, my young friend." He looked up and saw the elderly miko and her young charge walk up to the doorway. Kaede entered the house, but the girl took made a beeline to them. "Ah, Rin-chan and Kaede-sama have come."

"Miroku-sama! What are you doing? Have you seen Kagome-sama yet this morning?" said Rin, running up to the two of them.

"Ah, Rin-chan! I was trying to meditate, but it seems it is my karma not to do that this morning. No, we haven't seen Kagome or InuYasha yet, but I suspect they'll come by for breakfast. How are you and Kaede-sama this morning?"

"Rin and Kaede-sama are doing well, Miroku-sama. Kaede went in to talk to Sango-sama, but Rin brought flowers for Kwannon," she said, holding out a small posy of wildflowers she had gathered on the way here.

"Then you must give them to her." He stood up as he watched Rin lay down the flowers next to his offering, gasho, and whisper something. Miroku thought idly about whom the girl was praying for, and wondered if it had anything to do with a certain Inu youkai and his green imp. He wouldn't have been surprised if it were.

Before she could finish her prayer, two smaller figures ran for the monk and the Kitsune. "Daddy! Shippou! Rin!" they shouted together.

Miroku bent down. "There's my girls! You finally woke up!"

The two twins rushed into his arms.

"Mommy said go play!" said Noriko, looking at Shippou. Shippou, who noticing her looking, jumped from Miroku's shoulder to his head.

"Mommy cooking," said Yasuko, who looked mournfully at the out-of-reach Kitsune.

"I'm hungry," said Shippou. "I hope she doesn't take too long."

Rin covered her mouth and giggled.

"Be patient, Shippou-kun. And get off my head," Miroku said calmly.

Shippou moved back to Miroku's shoulder, but kept his tail carefully out of reach of the twins.

Miroku looked at his daughters. "How about a story? Maybe Mama will have breakfast ready by the time we're done."

"Story!" said Noriko. Yasuko merely stuck her tongue out at Shippou.

Miroku, with his arms full of children moved to the veranda of his house and sat down while Rin joined them. The girl held out her arms and Yasuko, knowing that Shippou was a lost cause, went to her, and amused herself with a piece of red ribbon Rin pulled out of her kosode sleeve.

"Well, my dear girls, once upon a time there was a mean and nasty oni," Miroku began. "It was bright red and had two long horns coming out of its head, and big leathery wings, and was very ugly. From time to time, it would fly across the world, and when it found noisy little girls, it would pick them up, and fly back to its home and stick them in a hole."

"Not a bad idea," Shippou said, rubbing his ear. Miroku thumped his nose.

"One day, he found two beautiful little girls, playing by a river, splashing in the water, making lots of noise. They were twin sisters. So the oni grabbed them." Miroku grabbed Yusuko back, and pulled both girls into a tight hug, tickling them as he did, and they squealed.

"He took them back to his mountain cave and stuffed them down a dark hole. There were lots of bugs and dust and other nasty things. It made them very sad. They wanted to go home."

"They crying?" Noriko asked.

Miroku nodded solemnly. "The evil oni flew on, and found someone else." He looked up at Rin. "It was a beautiful young girl who was studying with a miko. She was busy getting water from a well, while singing about wildflowers."

Rin smiled, and sang a verse:

"Bright yellow blossoms,  
you nod in the morning wind.  
Will the bees come by  
dancing to make you happy?"

Miroku nodded. "Just like that. It was a pretty song, not noisy like the twins," he said, "But it was loud enough for the oni. The oni grabbed the girl, bucket and all, and flew back to his home, and stuffed her and the bucket into the hole with the twins.

"What the oni didn't know was these weren't regular girls, but two dragons! When the older girl found them in the hole, she heard them crying. 'If only someone would sprinkle some water on us, we could turn back into dragons and slay the oni and go home!' they cried."

"Must have been little dragons," Shippou said. Rin gave him a mean look.

"'Fear not, little dragons!' said the girl with the bucket. 'I have some water in my bucket right here!' And she sprinkled both the beautiful little girls with water, and they both turned into mighty golden dragons.

"The golden dragons and the lovely young maiden flew out of the cave and caught the evil oni, and the maiden threw her bucket at it, which turned into a bunch of magic flowers which wrapped around the oni. The ugly oni, unable to be surrounded by such beauty, fell to the ground dead. And it never ever hurt another noisy girl."

"Yay!" said Yusuko.

"Don't you look just like Jizo!" said a soft woman's voice.

Shippou looked up, and saw the missing couple standing in front of them, smiling at the scene in front of them. "Kagome!"

"Patron saint of children, eh? Maybe we should light some incense or something," said InuYasha, grinning, one arm around the woman standing next to him.

"Now where have you two been all night?" Miroku asked, a knowing smile touching his lips.

Kagome blushed.


	4. Changing Times

Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha or any of the characters created by Rumiko Takahashi

**Yesterday's Tomorrows**

Chapter 4 - Changing Times

_Her smile dances there  
for him as he watches her  
moving gracefully,  
even when he cannot look,  
for he sees her in his heart._

* * *

"Now where have you two been all night?" Miroku asked, his violet eyes laughing, and a knowing smile just touching his lips.

Kagome blushed and leaned into InuYasha's shoulder. He, in turn, looked his friend in the eyes as if to say 'you will not screw this up for me,' and tightened his arm around her waist. "Together," the hanyou said.

Shippou, sniffing the air, caught their scent and at first his blue eyes grew surprised, then narrowed. He glared at InuYasha. "Baka. Didn't waste any time, did you? You could have told somebody you weren't going to Kaede's. I was worried."

InuYasha growled softly, glaring back. Kagome lifted her head, met the hanyou's eyes with a soft look and shook her head. Sighing a little, he gave her a small, tentative smile, and nodded.

Turning back to look at the kit, Kagome said, "I'm sorry we worried you, Shippou-chan. We didn't plan it in advance." He jumped into her arms and she ruffed his hair. "After we get settled, you'll have to tell me about all the Kitsune magic you've been learning."

"Feh," said InuYasha. He released his hold on Kagome, and shoved his arms in his sleeves. "Stupid to worry, Brat. Kagome was with me. Everything's fine."

"Kagome-sama! Rin missed you last night, but she's glad you're here now," said the petite girl. She stuck a flower in Noriko's hair, then looked up. "Rin did not worry, because she knew that InuYasha-sama would keep you safe."

Shippou stuck his tongue out at the girl. Kagome, noticing, put him on the ground. "Be nice to Rin, Shippou-chan."

InuYasha trying to suppress a grin at the unhappy look at the fox, turned towards his friend. "So, Bouzo, how do you know where I wasn't last night?"

Miroku grabbed Yusuko's hand as she tried to pull the flower out of Noriko's hair. He looked up. "Sango gave me some things for you, Kagome-sama, but when I got to Kaede's house, you had yet to arrive," he said. "After that, I began to wonder at what could have delayed the two of you." He grabbed Yusuko again. "No, Yusuko. That's your sister's flower."

Rin took that moment to put a flower in Yusuko's hair, giggling. The small girl patted it. Seeing Miroku's knowing smile, Kagome half buried her face in InuYasha's shoulder. Miroku, though, caught the happy look on her face along with her pinking cheeks. InuYasha wrapped his arms around her.

"Told you he hadn't changed much," the hanyou said softly. "He's still a tease."

"Me, a tease?" Miroku asked in mock outrage. "I am so misunderstood. Like Shippou-kun, I was merely concerned for your well-being."

Noriko, tired of flowers and oblivious to the games the adults were playing, squirmed more in Miroku's arms, trying to get down. "Doggy Uncle!" she cried.

Yusuko looked at the Kitsune standing near her father's knee, his bushy tail making interesting movements. Seeing that both her father and Shippou were distracted with watching InuYasha, she chose this moment to reach for the Kitsune's tail.

"Ow!" said the fox kit, jumping back onto Miroku's shoulder and then his head.

"Don't pull Shippou-kun's tail," he said to his daughter. He handed Yusuko to Rin, who happily accepted the small child. "Why don't you take her back to the house? Tell Sango we'll be there in a minute. Shippou, get off of my head and go with her if you want anything for breakfast."

Rin began to wiggle her fingers at Yusuko. "Come on, Shippou-chan," she said, getting up and walking towards the door. Shippou jumped back to the ground, and muttering something about baka girls and respecting tails, followed her with a wary look at the little girl.

Miroku's other daughter continued to try to free herself from her father's grasp."Down, Daddy," Noriko said. "Want Doggy Uncle!"

"Here," said Kagome, seeing the look on InuYasha's face as he rubbed his ear in reaction to the little girl's demand. She reached out for the squirming child. "I'll take Noriko." Miroku handed the child over. "Let's go see Mama and Kaede-sama, Noriko. You can tell Mama about the dragons."

Noriko was not happy about the turn of events, but Kagome walked off with her anyway.

When InuYasha turned to follow, Miroku reached up and grabbed his sleeve. "Wait a moment, friend. We should have a talk," he said softly. Before she reached the door, Miroku said, "Let us know if breakfast is ready," in a voice strong enough to be heard over his daughter's complaints.

"Feh," InuYasha said, freeing himself from his friend's grasp. He stuck his hands inside of his sleeves, as if irritated, but his eyes followed Kagome into the house, and when the door closed, he sighed.

"Sit down, InuYasha," Miroku said.

The hanyou plopped down on the ground. "Keh," he said, not meeting his companion's eyes.

"I take it that you and Kagome-sama have come to some sort of decision about your future with each other, InuYasha."

The hanyou's right ear twitched as he stared off into the forest. His face softened though, and a ghost of a smile touched his lips. "Yeah," he said. "We have."

"I'm happy for you two," Miroku said. "You stayed at your house last night?"

InuYasha nodded.

Miroku stretched his legs and leaned back on his elbows, looking away from InuYasha and into the treetops beyond the clearing. "I thought you might have. I will tell you that contrary to my reputation and what some would think of me, I resisted all anxious female and Kitsune nudges to go looking for you when you two disappeared." He turned back, and looked at the hanyou, smiling. " I can't promise I'll be able to resist all urges to tease, but even I will admit that some things should be just between a man and his bride."

The hanyou, still not meeting his friend's eye, and his face coloring slightly, plucked a blade of grass and idly twisted it between his fingers.

Miroku watched his friend a moment, and raised an eyebrow. "You are taking her for your bride, right?"

The hanyou nodded once, then tossed away the blade of grass. "You ask too many damn questions, Bouzu."

"That's what friends are for." Miroku replied, smiling.

"Though why she wanted to give up everything to be with me . . . " InuYasha's voice drifted off, and he lay back on the grass and grew quiet. "Everything's changed so quick," he said suddenly.

"Amazing how that can happen," Miroku said.

"Keh." InuYasha leaned back on the ground, cupping his hands beneath his head, and stared up at the sky.

Miroku stood up and brushed off his robes. "Well, my friend, this is just a first step in how your life is going to change. I suspect the women are in there plotting things, like how to furnish that empty house of yours. I know you don't have much more in there than a bed. We probably ought to join them so you have at least some say in what's going on."

"Never needed anything else," InuYasha said as he gracefully got to his feet.

"If you're going to be a husband, you're going to find out you suddenly need all sorts of things you never thought you did," Miroku said sagely. "Why do you think I charge those who can afford it so much for our services?"

"Probably don't want me to answer that," InuYasha replied.

Miroku snorted. The sounds of women's voices laughing drifted from inside the house. "They sound rather pleased in there," he noted."I would take that as a good omen. Maybe they haven't had a chance to get too far into planning your life yet. You'll appreciate that."

They headed towards the front door, but right before they entered, Miroku stopped, and laid a hand on InuYasha's shoulder. "She'll want a wedding, you know," Miroku said. "Even if she never says anything about it, she'll want it."

InuYasha sighed. "I don't know anything about that type of stuff." His ear began to twitch nervously again.

"I'll talk to Kaede-sama for you. I'm sure we can work something out. Now let's see what we're having for breakfast."

Sliding the door open, Miroku led his friend into the house.

* * *

On the edge of a mountain meadow, not far from where the three provinces of Shinano, Kai and Musashi come together, a crow landed on a tree. From its perch in the branches above, it could see two men. One of the two was sleeping, the other standing.

"Time to get up." The drowsing man found a foot dressed in straw sandals and black deerskin tabi prodding at his shoulder. "We've got a long way to go if you want to get to Musashi alive, Jiro. We've been lucky so far. The sooner we're out of here the better."

"Damn it, Haru," said Jiro, grabbing the offending ankle. "Give me some peace." Jiro was dressed like a foot soldier, his head pillowed on his armor, and he slept with his black lacquered, conical jingasa hat over his face to block out the light. Currently it bore the four diamond sign of the Takada forces.

Unnoticed by either man, the crow hopped to a lower branch, cocking a curious eye at the pair.

"Get up," Haru said.

Jiro let go of Haru's ankle. Pulling the hat from his face, he said, "You walk me most of the night, and barely let me get any rest at all. How do you expect me to travel today?"

Haru gave him one more shove with his foot. Older than Jiro, with a touch of gray in his hair, and gray stubble on his chin, he had a lean, hungry look to his face, accented by the weathered lines that edged his eyes. He too wore the clothing of a foot soldier, the body armor of beaten iron, the sleeves with their armor plates, and shin guards. Tiredly, he squatted down next to his companion and scratched his chin, looking at Jiro with hard eyes.

"Just be glad we weren't already going north on the road to Echigo like most the other shits in the army when we had to leave," he said. "Your head might be on a pike when they made camp tonight."

The crow in the tree gave a caw, as if it were agreeing with him.

"Shinshiro never had any luck," Jiro said, sitting up at last.

"Or maybe the Kami took his luck and gave it to us. He was always complaining that Bishamon Kami always hated him. Whatever. We were lucky that the jackass lieutenant recognized Shinshiro and not us. Must have been what, five or seven years ago since we hit his village?"

Haru stood up and scratched at the back of his neck.

Jiro spit, then rolled to his feet. "Just our luck that the captain would have found someone to replace our old lieutenant that would have recognized us. We hadn't been doing nothing but soldier work since right after that." He reached down, grabbed his armor and started to put it on. "Won't matter, anyway, in a day or two. They'll all be marching off to fight the Uesugi."

"Yeah? You wanna bet on Takeda mercy? I won't be able to rest until we get to Musashi." He looked up, saw the crow. The crow looked back at him and cawed.

"Why you want to go to Musashi, anyway?" Jiro asked.

"I've got family down in Musashi, near Edo. It might be nice to just lay low for a while. Maybe we'll just head down the road from there to Odawara, see if the rumor that the Houjou are building up their armies is true. No matter what, it'll be far, far away from the Takeda."

Haru slapped at the back of his neck. "Damn fleas. I need a bath."

The crow flew off.

Myouga settled himself down for the trip ahead. It looked like it might be rather interesting.

* * *

InuYasha walked up the path towards his house, and noticed the neat pile of belongings on the porch. The shutters were open, and even the door mat had been tied back. A couple of posts had been driven into the ground and a laundry line had been strung. A futon hung across it, swaying a little bit in the breeze. He put down the box of things Kaede had insisted he bring back for Kagome, and peeked in the door.

The air in the room smelled lightly of vinegar, pungent and clean. There was nothing in the little house, except a small woman in a beige kosode, sitting in a pool of light from one of the windows. A blue wrap skirt was tied around her waist, and she was on her hands and knees with a bucket and rag wiping down the wooden floor. Her sleeves were tied back, and her hair was tied up in a blue head scarf, and she was singing softly to herself as she worked.

"Why does the crow caw  
flying over the mountain,  
kawaii, kawaii  
hear her calling.

"In her nest she has  
seven cute chicks just waiting,  
kawaii, kawaii,  
she's calling for them.

"'I love you, cute chicks,'  
she sings as she goes flying,  
kawaii, kawaii.  
This is what she's telling them.

"Go and see her nest  
if you will not believe me,  
kawaii, kawaii,  
see the bright-eyed chicks."

He watched her silently for several minutes as she moved in rhythm to the song, wiping the floor, and wringing the rag out from time to time, as he thought about what Miroku said about his life changing. His ear twitched as he watched her work, trying to take in his new reality. 'It's changing so quick,' he thought, not for the first time.

"Kagome?" he said at last.

She turned her head towards him and smiled brightly, sitting back up. "InuYasha! I didn't hear you come in."

He sat down on the edge of the raised floor. "What ya doing?"he asked, sounding both surprised and bemused.

Kagome dropped the rag back in the bucket and walked over to sit next to him. "Oh, after you went down to the village with Miroku and Kaede after breakfast, Sango and I came back here. I noticed things were a bit dusty, and after she went to put the twins down for a nap, I thought I'd clean up some for good luck. You don't mind, do you?"

He shook his head. "Not if it makes you happy. I was just surprised." InuYasha reached out, tucked a piece of hair that had escaped from her scarf back behind her ear. "You look . . . different," he managed to say.

"Sango gave me the dress," Kagome said, chewing her lip, and dropping her eyes. "Is it all right?"

He smiled, leaning over until his forehead touched hers. "Yeah. You look nice . . . like you belong here."

"Good," she replied. "That's the way I want it always to be."


	5. Perceptions

_I do not own InuYasha nor any characters created by Rumiko Takahashi_

**Yesterday's Tomorrows**

_**Chapter 5: Perceptions**_

How we hide sometimes  
so much behind outward things -  
let me look and see  
the you that is really there,  
see my heart beating just for you.

"You look . . . different," InuYasha said, looking at Kagome as she knelt next to him. The blue and white pattern of the wrap skirt was damp around her knees from where she had been working on the floor. He reached out and traced a piece of white flower blossom in the wrap skirt design.

"Sango gave me the dress," Kagome said, chewing her lip, and dropping her eyes, suddenly self-conscious. She tucked a piece of hair that had escaped back under the scarf that was wrapped bandana-fashion around her head. "Is it all right?"

He smiled, leaning over until his forehead touched hers. "Yeah. You look nice, like you belong here."

"Good," she replied. "That's the way I want it always to be. I want to look like I belong here with you, because I do."

InuYasha slid an arm around her waist and cupped her cheek with his other hand. His right ear twitched as his eyes, intense and warm, searched hers. He struggled to say something. "Damn it, woman. I don't have the words."

He kissed her, gently, tenderly, lips lightly dancing over hers, then coming up for air, he stroked her cheek with his thumb. "I don't know if I ever will have the words. How can I tell you what it means to me that you're here? That you want to be here? That you gave up so much."

Kagome kissed him back. "I didn't lose anything. I came back to the place I'm supposed to be."

InuYasha smiled, but sighed. "I don't know anything about being a...a husband. I barely know how to be a friend. I'm walking around in a daze today because everything's changed so fast. If I act stupid or don't say the right thing, it doesn't mean anything."

"I know, InuYasha." She smiled. "But now I need to finish with the floor. Sango said that she would bring dinner over here tonight."

She got up and moved back to her mop bucket. InuYasha watched her at work, and for some reason felt guilty that she should be doing that type of work for his house, and yet he couldn't deny she seemed perfectly content. She began humming, then singing softly the same song as she had been singing earlier.

"Why does the crow caw  
flying over the mountain,  
kawaii, kawaii  
hear her calling," she sang.

Turning away so as not to watch her, he stared down at his hands, rough and clawed, and thought about the crow youkai that led to the jewel being shattered and how it made sure that his life would be forever changed. Then he remembered what he had been doing before he saw her mopping. "Kaede sent some things over. I left them by the door."

Kagome sat up, and dropped her rag into the bucket, then wiped her forehead. "Thank you, InuYasha. I was talking to Kaede before you came into breakfast this morning. She told me she wanted to give me some things," she said. " She also told me she wants me to train with her to be a miko. I told her I would think about it."

"What?" InuYasha said, his voice rising some as he turned back to face Kagome. She met his eyes calmly, smiling gently.

"Kaede told me she wanted me to train to take over for her. I think she's worried that when she's gone, the village won't have a healer anymore." She rubbed her nose with the back of her wrist and tried to blow an errant hair out of her face. " I know she knows they could always get a young woman to dance the kagura for the rituals, but not someone with spiritual powers to protect people. She's not getting any younger, InuYasha." Kagome rinsed her rag, and turned back to the floor.

Suddenly a feather of cold touched his heart. "But . . . but can you do that?" he asked, his ears drooping. "Miko aren't wives. They're supposed to give themselves to the Kami and their work totally. Does she know about us?"

She saw the worry in his eyes and sighed."Yes. Yes, she does, InuYasha. I made sure of that." She stood up and stretched. "There, that's got it for the floor." Looking over the floor, gleaming in places where beams of late afternoon light touched the wetter spots, she dropped the rag back in the bucket then picked it up and walked back over to where InuYasha was sitting. He looked up at her with troubled eyes, like a reprimanded puppy. She sat down on the edge of the platform next to him and let her feet dangle, brushing on the packed dirt below.

"InuYasha," Kagome said, leaning on his shoulder. "I didn't come back across time to be a miko. I came back because I wanted to be with you." His arm slipped around her, and she nuzzled closer. "I promise you I will never do anything that would interfere with that. I could have been a miko staying at home. I could have even been a priest. Women were beginning to be allowed to be priests before I came back." She looked up at him, looking peaceful but serious. "But I think I would like to work with Kaede."

"But how can you do that and be with me?" he asked. He gently cupped her cheeks in his hands. "I just found you again. I don't think I could let you go even for a good cause."

Leaning forward, she kissed him lightly on the lips. "How can Miroku be a monk and be married to Sango and eat fish and meat?" she replied. "We can just do it. I would like to be a healer. I know what it's like to be connected to a shrine, how the rhythm of the seasons works with the Kami. I would hate for this village to be without someone to help once Kaede can't manage the work herself."

"They'll call you a dark miko," he said. His eyes narrowed.

"Who, the villagers?" she said, with a soft laugh. "I doubt they'll tell the woman who treats their illnesses and delivers their babies that she's evil."

InuYasha sighed. "I don't know. Strangers. The Daimyo down in Odawara. People who'll want to give you grief." He brushed his lips lightly over her cheek. "I don't want anybody making you sad or hurting you. It's going to be hard enough to explain you being with me."

"Please, InuYasha. Kaede's been so good to us. Let me try to give something back," Kagome said, her dark eyes searching his face.

"You're asking me?" he said, surprised at her reaction.

"Of course," she said. She picked up one of his hands and placed it over her heart. "I came here to be with you. You told me I was your wife. You have a say-so in this."

"Feh. I've never been able to stop you doing anything you wanted," he replied. "But she has been good to me, even after you left. If you want to, you can try it."

She smiled a brilliant smile for him. "Good. Now maybe we want to start putting some of the stuff back in the house. It won't be too much longer until Sango and Miroku show up."

* * *

"Once there was a man who was really very simple, so his neighbors called him Kashikoi-sama," said Kagome. "For some reason, he began to believe he was as smart as his nickname of Wise One and began talking and giving his opinions about everything like he really knew what he was talking about."

The little house seemed crowded with the gathered friends. Dinner of Sango's soup was over, and the pot and dishes were stacked near the entryway. InuYasha set near the fire pit, poking at the pine wood he had added for extra light. He looked up at Kagome's description, giving a wicked smirk to Miroku.

"It's lucky that some of us actually do know what we're talking about, isn't it, Sango my beloved," Miroku said, picking up a wiggling Noriko and securing her in his lap.

"One day, he and some friends had come together for a celebration. While they were drinking sake and eating, somehow or other, the talk got around to Kitsune," Kagome continued. Shippou, sitting next to Kagome, stuck out his tongue at InuYasha. She took the hanyou's hand in hers before he could bop him.

Yusuko took that moment to begin toddling towards the young Kitsune, snagged at the last moment by Sango. "Shippou!" she cried, holding her arms out to him. Shippou jumped on InuYasha's shoulder.

"You like living dangerously, don't you?" InuYasha growled, but softly.

"Better you than her," Shippou said, holding his tail defensively.

Kagome shot daggers at both of them, but continued her story. "Now Kashikoi had a lot of sake to drink. After hearing several of the men talk about how various people had been fooled or frightened by Kitsune, he declared that only the foolish or easily led could ever let a fox misguide them. Wise and intelligent people like himself could never be so tricked. In fact, he declared, most people who thought they had been fooled by a Kitsune probably just scared themselves.

"His friend Takeo tried to talk sense to him. 'You shouldn't talk that way!' he said. 'We know of at least thirty men who were tricked in the Black Pine moor alone. Are you saying they all were men who fooled themselves or were weak, or someone human tricked them?'

"'Yes,' Kashikoi told him. 'That's exactly what I'm saying. And to prove it, I'll go out there tonight!'

"'Well, let's make it worth your while. You come back with no fox tale to tell us, and we'll buy you five jugs of sake. But if anything happens, you have to do the same for us,' Takeo said. Their friends roundly agreed. Soon all six of them stood up, and with much loud noise and rude singing, they got torches and escorted their friend out into the night and toward the Black Pine moor."

Shippou snickered.

"And I suppose you're thinking about pranks you would pull on him right now, aren't you, brat?" InuYasha said.

"I was thinking what the guys at the last youjutsu exam would do to him, actually," Shippou said. He jumped off InuYasha's shoulder and landed in the center of the group. "First, they'd - "

"Shippou-chan," said Kagome, looking at the kit. "Can I keep telling the story?"

"Oh," he said, sitting down. "I'm sorry."

"Anyway," Kagome said, "Kashikoi's friends took him to the moor, and Takeo announced loudly, 'Hey, Kitsune-samas, we have someone who doesn't believe in you here. We have five jugs of sake that say you'll show him what you can do. Don't let us down!' And laughing, they all walked off."

"Some friends," Sango muttered. The baby Nao began to fuss and she let Yusuko loose to take care of him, putting him over her shoulder.

"The first thing Kashikoi noticed once his friends' drunken voices were out of hearing was a rustle in a bamboo stand in front of him. Looking carefully, he saw a fox dart into the bamboo, and he went to investigate. Passing beyond the bamboo, he saw the wife of the village headman. 'Why, hello, Kashikoi-sama! How unexpected to see you out here tonight. I am just going to go visit my father in the village. Will you walk with me?'

"Suddenly, Kashikoi became suspicious that a fox was trying to deceive him. He knew that there was no way the village headman would let his wife walk between villages after dark. While agreeing to walk with her, he began to look for telltale signs of fox magic, like the tip of a tail showing at the bottom of her kosode, or if her clothing seemed to glow in the dark, but for the life of him, he saw nothing. Yet he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

"They eventually reached the cottage of her family, but just as her father and mother came out to greet her, he took a knife out of his belt and said, 'Stand back! I know this girl is not your daughter, but a fox out to trick us all!' While her parents watched in horror and tried to pull him away, he tortured her trying to get her to reveal her true form, and when that didn't work, he used the flame from his lantern to set her dress on fire. 'Mother! Father!' she cried, but there was nothing they could do, and she died."

Just as Kagome finished that passage, Yusuko, finally realizing she was free of her mother's hand, crawled over to pull Shippou's tail, and he shrieked.

"Yusuko, leave Shippou-kun alone!" Sango ordered.

Shippou jumped on Miroku's shoulder.

"Got caught up in the story, eh?" Miroku said.

Shippou crossed his arms. "Feh," he said in InuYasha style. "You need to teach Yusuko that my tail ain't a toy."

"But it's so fun to watch, Shippou-kun," Sango commented.

Kagome laughed. "You should have seen the look on your face, Shippou-chan!"

"Well, what happens next?" InuYasha said.

She nudged him with her elbow. "Let me see . . . Someone got a big stick and hit Kashikoi over the head and he fell unconscious. When he awoke, he was tied up, and a fierce looking samurai was standing over him.

"'You must die for your murder!' said the samurai. "I am going off to tell my master and also her husband what has happened. Expect the worst!'

"'But I could have sworn she was a fox!' he cried. 'I saw the fox. Why would the headman let his wife wander around after nightfall?'

"'Our poor daughter! Whatever shall we tell her husband?' cried the parents.

"A Buddhist priest came by, attended by a young boy and a servant. Hearing all the noise, he asked what the problem was. A servant led him in to where the parents and the official were, and he heard their tale of woe. He turned to the unfortunate man. 'Why Kashikoi, is that you?' he asked.

"'Yes, Dono, it is I. I thought I saw a fox turn into this poor woman and I killed her. But I really thought it was a fox out to trick me! If you can do something to save my life, I would do anything.'

"'Well then, let me talk with the family,' the priest said, then took the others away into the back and had a conference. Kashikoi continued to weep and tremble where he was, not daring yet to hope. After a few minutes, the priest came back to him.

"'Well, Kashikoi, you have one chance,' said the priest. 'You can shave your head and become my disciple right now, or the Samurai-sama will take you to be tried and executed.'

"'Yes, do it right now,' said the girl's father. 'He was trying to protect us, even though it was an evil fate.'

"' Do you agree?' said the priest.

"The speechless man nodded his head. The priest untied him, had him kneel in a prayerful attitude, and began to shave his head while he chanted. After the ceremony was done, Kashikoi stood up and bowed deeply to the priest. At that moment, he heard a loud burst of laughter and the sun broke over the horizon. When he stood up, he was alone. Reaching up to the top of his head, though, he knew it wasn't a sake dream, because he had no hair. The foxes had fooled him after all."

"Yes!" said Shippou. "That's the way top ranked Kitsune do things! That would have gotten great marks on the exam."

"Hmm," said Miroku. "So what became of Kashikoi?"

"They say he went back to his friends," said Kagome. "He covered his head with a handkerchief, and told them the tale of what happened, and at the right moment, revealed what the foxes had done. Although his friends laughed at him, he paid his debt without complaining. Afterwards it is said he became a monk of great holiness who went out of his way to be compassionate to those who thought they had all the answers, but didn't. And he always remembered to do acts of kindness to the foxes who put him on the right path. Or so my grandfather told me."

"Hn," InuYasha said. "You would think he'd be mad at them, instead."

"Well, many are the paths that lead to enlightenment, my friend, " Miroku said, looking thoughtful. He glanced down at the sleeping child in his arms, looked at Sango, and gave her a little nod. "I think, though, it's time that we leave you two alone and put our children to bed. Thank you for the story, Kagome-sama."

"Can I stay here tonight?" Shippou asked. InuYasha's eyes narrowed, his hand reaching out to clasp Kagome's.

"Remember what we talked about this afternoon, Shippou?" Sango said.

The fox kit sighed. "I forgot." He jumped off of Miroku's shoulders and crawled into Kagome's lap. "I'll see you tomorrow, Kagome."

She gave the kit a wry smile then ruffled his hair. "Sure thing, Shippou-chan."

Sango stood up, and handed off the sleeping Yusuko to Miroku. "If you come over early enough, I'll teach you how I make breakfast."

Kagome smiled, getting up herself. "That would be good. I really don't know how to cook well in a fire pit. We did it a different way at my mother's house."

Bidding her friends goodbye, she let down the mat door and tied it shut. As she turned around, she watched InuYasha sitting by the fire pit. His hands were stuffed in his sleeves and he was staring into the fire, a far away look on his face. Suddenly the little room seemed very large and quiet.

"I think I'm tired," she said. InuYasha's ear twitched in her direction, and he nodded slightly, but didn't say anything.

Kagome quietly went to the back of the hut and got out their bedding then laid it out. She took off her wrap skirt and laid it out on the clothing chest she had put against the back wall, then dragged the comb that Sango had given her through her hair. During all of this, InuYasha remained quiet. When she was finished, she returned next to her hanyou. He looked up at her, his eyes shimmering with some emotion she wasn't quite sure of as she stood there. Kagome chewed her bottom lip, uncertain of what to say, but sat down next to him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"You're not thinking about the story I told. I can tell," she said. She twirled a lock of his hair around one of her fingers.

"Keh," he said, uncrossing his arms and wrapping one arm around her waist. "Already knew what Kitsune were like." After a moment, he rested his head on top of hers.

"So what are you thinking about?" she asked.

"Why," he said, very softly.

"Why what, InuYasha?" she said, letting her hand rest lightly on his thigh.

"Why you came back." His hand holding her waist began to gently stroke her side. She shivered a little in a pleasant way at the touch.

"I came back because I wanted to be with you," she replied.

"But you had so much - people who loved you, friends, so many things I will never be able to give you." His voice quavered a bit. She knew that voice - the voice of his insecurity and self-doubt.

Kagome sat up, to meet his eyes. "But it was a world without InuYasha." She placed her hand over the center of InuYasha's chest. "The longer I stayed, the more I knew my heart was here."

He looked down at her hand, and covered her hand with his. "All I wanted for you was for you to be happy and safe. I thought I was doing the right thing leaving you with your family. They loved you and needed you. "

"I needed them then, I think," she said. "But I need you now."

He swallowed hard, and rested his forehead on hers, interlaced his fingers in her hand. "I promise," he said "I'll never forget what you gave up to be with me. That you wanted to be with me. I will always stand by you."

Kagome kissed his lips gently. "And I will stand by you."

InuYasha pulled Kagome into his lap. "This has been such a strange day. Some nights after you were gone, I would run across the countryside, and then when I got tired, I would find a place to stop and imagine what would happen if you came back. Never ever did I imagine you mopping the floor."

"Someone has to," she said, smiling up at him. "You evidently weren't."

"Feh," he said. "I barely stayed here. Now this place is turning into something I don't want to leave." His eyes glittered in the firelight.

"InuYasha," she said softly. She ran her fingers along his jaw and past the point where his ears would be if he had human ones into his silver hair. The hair slid like silk over the back of her hand. The hand that had been around her waist slid up and cupped the back of her head, pulling her close as his mouth sought hers.

His kiss began tender and reverent, as he brushed his lips softly against hers, but grew in an impassioned neediness. His arms drew her in closer to him as the kiss deepened, and Kagome felt herself melting under the movement of his hands, the dance of his tongue with hers, the taste of him. He broke off the kiss, gazing deeply into her eyes. "Is this all right, Kagome?"

"What, InuYasha?" she asked. His eyes glowed a dark bronze.

"This feeling. I want you so much." He began to plant small kisses across her jaw and worked down her neck. "I need to touch you, to taste you, to smell you." His mouth found hers again, plundering her sweet taste. His hands made long sweeping strokes down her back. "All day long, I've been in a daze. I felt bad that you left everything behind for me. I feel so happy that you're here. I'm frightened that I'll wake up and find I've been dreaming. I kept thinking about last night and thinking about having you alone with me again tonight. I don't think I'll ever have the strength to send you away again. Is this all right?"

Her blue gray eyes gleamed as she smiled through kiss-swollen lips. "Yes, InuYasha, this is very all right." She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him firmly, then unwrapped herself from his hold.

He whined a little as she stood up. "Bank the fire, InuYasha," she said, pulling the knot on her obi free. "It's time for bed."


	6. Spinning Thoughts After Dark

_I do not own InuYasha or any of the characters created by Rumiko Takahashi_

**  
Yesterday's Tomorrows**

_**Chapter Six - Spinning Thoughts After Dark**_

_In the spring darkness  
many things can be hidden -  
like Sakura blooms,  
love can grow, unseen by eye,  
or malice send forth its buds._

On the far side of the village, in a large house surrounded by paddies and outbuildings, two people sat in the main room of their house.

"As I was saying, Tsuneo - " one of them, an older woman, said. She was small, and looked to be about fifty. Dressed in a fine kosode with a pattern of blue and white checks, she sat next to a spinning wheel and was working hemp linen thread.

An old man, about the same age, looked up at the speaker, poked at the fire in the fire pit, threw another piece of wood in. His jacket and hakama were of dark blue indigo, wrinkled and stained with mud. A blanket of brown and green lay lightly around his shoulders. Sparks flew up when the wood knocked the coals that were already burning.

"Enough, Haname," Tsuneo said, pulling his blanket close and staring into the fire. "I have heard enough complaining tonight." He closed his eyes, as if not watching her would make her voice go away.

The wood caught, brightening the room for a moment. It was a larger room than most in the village. On the other side of the fire pit, Haname turned the spinning wheel, slowly drawing out a thread. The top of her head was covered with a bright piece of red cloth tied to keep the hair off of her face, but beneath that, dark eyes glittered and her pursed lips were set in a disapproving frown.

Tsuneo grabbed his sake jug and poured the sake into his cup. Drinking it, he made a face and swallowed, then ran a gnarled hand over his head and signed. His eldest son and his daughter-in-law were already in the back in their room of the house, away from the noise and contention in the front. His youngest son was sitting on the veranda, waiting for the voices to die down before he came into the house.

"It's bad enough that we have that mononoke running around the village like belongs to him, but now that girl has returned . . . and I hear he has moved her into that hut he has back by the Boneeater's well," she said, winding the thread onto the spindle. "And that white specter they say is his brother. I've seen how he looks at that girl he left with Kaede. I get the shivers any time he's near. I can't believe the Kami are happy with that. Something dark's bound to happen to us." She reversed the turning on the spinning wheel and pulled more thread out of the bundle of fibers. "Why don't you ever say anything in the village meetings?"

"Who says I don't?" Tsuneo said, looking up at her with a fierce glare. "You think I just sit there quietly?" He wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve. "You think I don't complain? It doesn't do any good. All they talk about how good it's been about not having any bandits or problem youkai around the village anymore, thanks to those two brothers and the monk. And it's not just the headman's family, either. Mitsuo's family agrees - ever since the girl and the hanyou rescued his grandson, they can do no wrong."

"If only my brother were here. Then maybe we could get something done," she said, sighing.

"If your brother were here, woman, we'd still be members of the smallest of the three families in the village, Tameo would still be head of the largest family and while he and his miko cousin still back the hanyou and call that woman the reincarnation of Kikyou-sama, there's nothing me, you or your brother can do." He took another sip of sake and refilled his cup. "Last time he was here, he was just one step away from the Daimyo's men who said he was a bandit. You think that'll do our family any good?

"And if youkai left, no doubt the monk and his family would leave, too, and maybe even close down that hovel he calls his temple. And where would you go to make your endless prayers to Kwannon?"

She made a noise in her throat, like she was about to say something, but chose not to. Instead, she turned her spinning wheel.

"We might be able to get rid of the hanyou. It's happened before. I mean, Kikyou-sama had him pinned where he couldn't hurt anybody. But not with his brother hanging around. It'd take a Kami to get rid of that one. And he won't leave long as that twit of a girl's here. And don't you know Kaede-sama knows it, too." Tsuneo knocked back the last of the sake. "Long as the girl stays with her, nobody's going to say anything. Enough of this endless complaining! I'm going to sleep."

He moved to the back, towards the room he slept in. Haname turned her spinning wheel while the thoughts turned around in her head.

* * *

While Haname spun her thread and argued with her husband, Miroku and Shippou made their way to Kaede's hut, the rings on the monk's staff jingling as he made his way through the dark.

"So why are we here again?" asked the small Kitsune.

"I am here because I need to ask Kaede something, Shippou-kun. You are here because you kept teasing my daughters when it was time for them to go to sleep, and I thought Sango was going to take Hiraikotsu out of storage and go fox hunting," Miroku said, then tapped on the miko's door frame.

"Does that mean you want me to spend the night here?" the Kitsune asked.

"Something like that, yes," Miroku replied. Shippou crossed his arms and sighed.

The old miko lifted the edge of the door mat and saw the two standing in front of her. Stepping forward, Kaede looked at him questioningly."So, Houshi-sama, what brings you to my house tonight? This does make two nights in a row. If you insist on showing up every evening at my house, people are going to start talking," Kaede said, with only the slightest smile, but there was a touch of merriment in her voice.

Miroku chuckled as he bowed politely, dislodging Shippou from his perch on his shoulder. "You wound me, Kaede-sama. Surely you know what a sterling reputation I have," he said in a tone of mock injury.

Kaede cleared her throat. Before she could say anything, Shippou, dusting himself off from where he landed in the dirt looked up at Kaede with big blue eyes and asked, "Is Rin still awake?"

"Yes, she is, and you may go in and see her, but none of your foolishness, Shippou-chan. It is getting late," Kaede said firmly. The small Kitsune dashed into the house. She turned back to Miroku.

"And so, Monk, I know you came not just to bring Shippou-chan here," Kaede said.

"That is true," he admitted with a small smile. "I told InuYasha that I would discuss certain things with you. We both have seen how things are playing out, both yesterday and today. I hope you agree with me that getting these things settled sooner is probably better than later."

"Ah, I suspect you might be correct, Houshi-sama," said the old miko, nodding. "Come in."

Miroku followed him into her hut. Rin, dressed in a pale blue sleeping kosode, was sitting in the corner, laughing at something Shippou had done that he had not seen, but evidently Kaede had.

"Shippou-kun, it is a good thing that Jaken-sama was not here to see your games," Kaede commented, as Miroku slipped off his sandals. "You might find him using that staff of his to singe your tail." Shippou grabbed his tail and covered it protectively.

"Jaken, Jaken, why are you so green," Rin sang, still laughing, but suddenly, her eyes grew distant and her voice faded away, as if remembering something that made her suddenly sad. Kaede noticed, and sighed, but went over to the fire pit where she stirred the flames. Reaching to one side, she grabbed an iron teakettle and put it on to heat, then stood up and took a box off of a shelf.

"You may each have one of these," she said, opening the box which contained treats. Rin looked in the box and delicately selected hers, then Shippou took another. "Rin-chan, take the lamp and go into the back room," Kaede said. "And you too, Shippou-kun. I want to talk to Miroku-sama."

"Thank you, Kaede-obaasan," Rin said. She took a small bite of the sweet cake, then stood up, picked up the lamp and headed towards the back. Shippou popped the treat into his mouth, then turning in Miroku's direction, made a curious but uncertain face. Miroku narrowed his eyes and gestured with his head towards the direction Rin was headed. With a little sigh, Shippou turned around.

"Did I ever tell you about Pocky?" he asked the girl as he hurried up to catch up with her. "Kagome used to bring it to me."

They disappeared behind the sliding doors.

Kaede tended to making tea. After a few minutes, Miroku could hear giggles and the sounds of clapping, and Rin's soft voice singing:

"If you ask the blossoms,  
Sakura petals falling  
in the breeze of spring  
to tell you of the winter,  
winter with its snow,  
they'll say that they are petals,  
blossoms in the wind.  
Ask the trees about the snow,  
ask the ancient trees."

"It sounds like they have found something to do to amuse themselves, Houshi-sama," said Kaede, pouring hot water over the tea. "Now you can tell me what is on your mind." She handed Miroku a cup of the fragrant green beverage, and he wrapped his hands around the cup, closing his eyes while he gathered his thoughts.

"Like I said, outside, this is about InuYasha," he began.

"And about Kagome-chan, and her return, is it not?" Kaede replied.

Miroku nodded. "I was talking with him today, and besides being overwhelmed by the fact of her return, he is rather unknowing about the customs involved. Even though he was there when Sango and I were wed, he was so torn up about Kagome-sama's absence, I doubt if he even remembers much. I told him I would be his go-between and help get everything done right, although I am not exactly sure who needs to be gone to in this case." He sipped his tea again. "And I am not sure if there would be any . . . objections in the village for the match."

Kaede shrugged her shoulders, then took a sip of her tea, pondering her answer. "That has always been InuYasha's lot, Houshi-sama. There will always be some who do not want youkai in their midst and will complain. Tsuneo's family has never been particularly happy with InuYasha living here, especially Haname, his wife."

"Haname? But she comes to the temple to offer incense to Kwannon almost every day," Miroku said. "My daughters call her Obasan. Aunt Haname has given them more of their share of treats, too."

"Not everyone who honors the Bodhisattva of mercy is merciful to all," Kaede said. "I have heard her complaints."

"Will this cause a problem? I do not believe anybody could separate InuYasha and Kagome-sama at this point," Miroku said, his eyebrows knotting thoughtfully.

Kaede gave a comforting smile. "Ah, Monk. I do believe no one's been able to separate them, really, for years, not in their hearts and souls, not even time. Even if people complain, I do believe we need to get them married as soon as possible, if not for his sake, at least for hers. He is willing, isn't he?"

Miroku nodded.

" I will talk to my cousin tomorrow," the old miko said. " I know, as headman, he will want to do the best for the village. Let us hope it will be the best for those two as well."

* * *

They lay in the darkness, spooned together under the quilt, only a tiny glow coming from the fire pit giving any light to the room. She woke up to the feel of his hand drawing lightly across her thigh.

"Umm, InuYasha," she muttered.

He kissed the top of her head. "I didn't mean to wake you," he said.

"S'okay," she replied. "Couldn't sleep?"

He snugged his arm around her waist. "Been thinking."

She rested her hand on his arm. "About what?" she asked.

"Life is never going to be the same, is it?" he said, letting his mouth graze the soft skin of her neck, planting small kisses there.

Kagome snuggled up closer against him. "No. Never," she replied. His hand left her waist, smoothing over her smooth skin, down to her thigh, then moved up to cup her breast. She shivered slightly at his touch. "You think you can live with it?"

She gasped lightly as he ran the pad of his thumb across her nipple, as his hand wrapped around the soft, warm mound. "I suppose so," he said, his voice lightly playful. His breath teased as his tongue traced the outline of her ear. "Some parts of it are very good."

"You haven't eaten my cooking yet," she said, managing to pull away enough so she could roll onto her back, looking at his face, wrapped deep in shadow. "I have to learn to cook all over. I never looked to cook in a fire pit." His eyes, though, heavy lidded, glowed. She reached up, drew a finger along his jaw line, outlined his lips.

InuYasha kissed her fingertip, cupped his hand around hers. "Don't care," he said. "We'll eat Sango's cooking until you learn." Leaning over her, his mouth found hers, hungry for something besides food. Sliding his arms under her shoulders, he deepened his kiss, his tongue dancing with hers. "Don't care if you ever learn. I'd live off air just to keep you here," he said, then kissed her again.

Kagome's hands slid under his hair as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "You'll have to feed me more than air to keep me here," she said, smiling.

"I'll find something," he murmured, his mouth drifting from her mouth to her neck. "Just tell me what you need."

She rocked her hips against him, and pulled him closer. "Right now," she said, "just you."

"You have me," he replied, lifting his head to gaze into her eyes. She swallowed at how even in the dim light his eyes seemed to pierce into her soul with their intensity. "Promise you'll still be here when it's morning, that I'm not dreaming."

"Always," she promised


	7. Morning Revelations

_I do not own InuYasha or any of the characters created by Rumiko Takahashi_

**Yesterday's Tomorrows**

_**Chapter 7: Morning Revelations**_

_When the sun rises,  
what is there to discover  
that yesterday hid?  
What new thing will bloom for you  
by the light of your soft smile?  
_

Morning dawned bright and sunny.

Not long after that, Kagome and InuYasha sat in Sango's house. Kagome had her sleeves tied back, and a scarf tied like a cap around her head to keep her hair out of the way, knelt next to Sango.

Today, she was dressed in a blue striped kosode with a checked wrap skirt, looking every bit the farm wife, but the look on her face showed no confidence about what she was about to do. InuYasha, trying not to make Kagome nervous, leaned against the wall, playing with Sango's son. Little Nao, even as young as he was, found the hanyou's silver hair and ears as fascinating as his sisters did, and watched the hanyou wiggle his ears at him. Luckily for the two of them, the twins still rested in the sleeping room.

The door slid open and Miroku walked in, fresh from his morning meditation, smelling of incense. He sat down to take off his sandals, and looked at the two women hovering around the fire pit. "So, Kagome-sama, Sango has told me that today you come to learn to cook," asked Miroku as he slid open the door to let them in. He slipped off his sandals, and walked over to where his wife was working.

Kagome nodded, and grinned sheepishly. "I did learn to cook once," she said, "But the kitchen was so much different," she said.

"Don't tease her, Miroku," Sango said. She slapped at his fingers as he reached over to take a slice of pickle she was preparing.

Munching on his trophy, Miroku walked across the room and sat down next to InuYasha. Nao, seeing his father, began to fuss, and an uncertain InuYasha was happy to hand him back to his father.

"Go do something, Miroku," Sango said.

"What do you want me to do?" the monk asked his wife. Nao grabbed one of his father's fingers as he waved them in front of the small boy.

Sango frowned and thought for a moment. "You and InuYasha can take Nao outside. The girls are still sleeping, and I don't want him waking them up."

He nodded, and stood up. InuYasha looked inquiringly at Kagome, and she smiled to reassure him and nodded.

With a last silly grin, Miroku said, "Come, men. Let's leave the women to their mysteries before they bring the wrath of the kitchen Kami upon our heads. Then what would we do for breakfast? Enjoy yourselves, beautiful women. Just don't set the house on fire."

InuYasha snorted and headed out of the house. Sango scowled at her husband as he slid the door closed, and then both she and Kagome broke out with the giggles.

"I don't know why I'm so nervous," Kagome said. Brushing a stray lock of hair off of her face and out of the way, she looked up at the ceiling above the fire pit to where the heavy wooden support for the pot hook was attached. There was a wicker basket stuffed with straw hanging up there with skewers of fish stuck in it. Thinking about her mother's house and how the kitchen was laid out, she sighed. She knew all the people of this village and everywhere she had gone in Japan cooked over open fires like this, but thinking about how she and her mother cooked at home, she felt very intimidated. "I never really paid much attention to how Kaede cooked on the fire pit when I was here before," she said finally. "All I know how to do is cook fish and rabbit on a stick."

"Is it really that much different where you come from, Kagome-chan?" Sango asked.

"Yes," she said. "More than you can imagine."

Sango put a cast-iron tea kettle onto a tripod and stuck some small pieces of wood under it to burn hot, and then sat back up and looked thoughtful. "Well, let's get the porridge started and I'll show you how to make the soup stock," she said. "I like to use a mix of dried niboshi fish and kombu for the stock. I've soaked the fish overnight . . . "

* * *

Haru sipped his soup thoughtfully as he looked down the road in front of the tea shop. There were already a number of people on the road, merchants and farmers, though it was still fairly early in the morning, carrying burdens and leading pack animals. He shook his head at their industry, and considered what he should do next.

No longer dressed in the robes of a runaway foot soldier, but like an artisan of moderate means in garments of well-washed indigo blue, he watched his companion Jiro handle the horse that was now carrying all of their war gear. It made them seem less of a threat and made it safer for them to travel down the road instead of cross country. It had been a stroke of luck that the Kami had put an unwary group of travelers in their way yesterday. They would be able to travel much faster on the roads this way, and it was even luckier that they had found this rest stop where an enterprising fellow had decided to put up a tea shop between post towns. He was getting tired of eating his, or even worse, Jiro's cooking.

"Well, how soon to you think it'll be before we reach your sister's village?" Jiro asked as he rejoined Haru. He picked up his soup bowl and started gulping it down.

Haru scratched idly at his head. "Damn fleas," he muttered. "First thing I do when I get to Haname's is to take a long, hot bath and drown whatever's making me itch." He took another drink of his soup. "I suspect we'll get there tomorrow," he told Jiro.

"What's it like there?" the younger man asked.

"Sleepy. Quiet," he replied. "Although if I know my sister, I suspect she causes the occasional hard time for her husband and her sons. She was always a hard woman to live around. Why the Kami let her be born as a woman instead of a man is one of the things in life I'll never understand."

"It'll be good to rest for a while," Jiro said, finishing the last of his soup.

"Don't you get any ideas," Haru said. "You get itchy, you let me know. I owe my sister that much at least."

"Yeah, yeah," said Jiro. He grabbed his partner's empty bowl to return it to the shop owner. "Let's get on the road."

Myouga, hidden in Haru's tea-whisk pony tail, once again contemplated the wisdom of his choice of rides.

* * *

  
InuYasha sat outside under a tree not far from his front door. As he leaned back against the tree trunk, he flicked his right ear as he watched Kagome walk past him in the bright midmorning sunlight as she made yet another circuit around the house. Stopping for a moment, she bent down and ran her fingers over the ground, and picked up a pinch of dirt. She looked up at the sky, and the trees overhanging the spot. Shaking her head, she began walking again.

His curiosity totally engaged, he got up, and began to follow her silently. She stopped at a different place, looked up at the sky, and again repeated of bending down and sampling the soil. She turned around and suddenly found herself bumping into a smiling but curious hanyou.

"This is the fourth time you've walked around the house," he said. "Is this some miko thing from your time?"

"I know," she said sheepishly, then chewed on her bottom lip. "No, it's not miko anything." She looked up at the sky, and then back at the ground again. "I'm not sure . . . "

He smiled gently at her."I'm sure of one thing. I don't have any idea of what you're doing," he said, lightly wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his head on her forehead. "You wanna tell me about it?"

She gave him a small wry smile, but pulled back from his hold and turned around. "Oh, I was just thinking. We need a vegetable garden," she said. "And I need to figure out where I want to put the laundry out to dry, and we're going to want a storage building, too, unless you want to smell the miso and pickles making all the time, and . . . "

"We don't have to decide it all right this minute," he said, pulling her close against her chest. He rested his chin on her shoulder.

She pointed. "I'd like to put the garden there, but it gets too much shade, I think."

"So we'll take a tree down if you really want it there," he said, nuzzling the side of her neck. "We can use the wood for the shed."

"That might work," she replied. "And we could do the laundry over there. I don't think the ground is as good." With a sigh, she pulled out of his embrace and moved into the house.

She was sitting by the fire pit when he followed her inside. As he came and sat beside her, she stirred up the fire and filled the tea kettle with water. Before she could put it over the fire, InuYasha picked up her hand and wrapped it in his much larger one.

"You did good at breakfast," he said. "Sango sent us home with lunch, so you don't have to worry about that. We know where to put the garden. Wanna tell me what's really bothering you?"

"It's silly," she said, chewing her bottom lip again.

"Try me," he replied.

She covered her face with her hands. "I think they're plotting something, and it's driving me crazy."

The hanyou's eyebrows knitted together as his smile disappeared, and he wrapped her in his arms, pulling her close. "Who's plotting? Did you hear something? Did someone say something to you? You need to let me know that type of thing." He gently kissed the top of her head. "You know I won't let anybody do anything to hurt you."

She reached up and touched his cheek. "No, not any of the villagers, InuYasha. Our friends."

"What are you talking about?" InuYasha asked, visibly relaxing, but not yet ready to let her go.

"Sango asked me not to stop by her house until tonight. When I went down after breakfast to talk to Kaede, she said she was going to be busy all afternoon. She even sent Rin out to do some chores, with instructions to come here after she was done, in case I needed any help. Miroku asked me to keep you busy today." She rested her head on his shoulder. "You should have seen the smile on his face when he said that! I know they're up to something. And I don't know what it is."

InuYasha chuckled. "And there I was afraid you were having second thoughts about being here, or someone had frightened you."

She shoved at him playfully. "I knew you would think it was silly." She stared at him for a moment, caught the glint in his eye and the smile he was working to suppress. "I bet you know what's going on."

"Not in detail," he replied. "Miroku mentioned something to me this morning."

"Well?" she asked.

He drew her closer, ran his hand through her hair. "Our friends," he said, breathing into her ear, "are plotting a wedding." He brushed his lips over hers. "Our wedding."

Kagome's face lit up. For the moment, as she fisted InuYasha's suikan and pulled him closer, she totally forgot about the tea she was going to make.

* * *

Rin, dressed not in her good kosode, but in a worn blue hemp cloth one stained at the knees, walked along the rice paddy dike, heading towards the field just beyond that. She carried a hoe over one of her shoulders and a basket in the other.

A boy was walking along another dike that met the path she was walking along. He was about 12, and like her, dressed in indigo blue clothes. Looking up, he saw Rin walking and waved.

"Where ya going?"he asked as he drew nearer.

"Hello, Nakao-kun," she said, looking down. "Rin is going to work in Kaede-sama's garden."

"Ah," he said. "Can I walk with you?"

She looked up at him. He had a soft and pleasant smile. She had seen him working and playing around the village. Once in awhile, he would do an errand for Kaede.

She chewed her bottom lip. "If you want to," she said. "Rin is going to pull weeds."

He smiled. "I had to do that yesterday morning for my mom's garden. Today, I was helping mend one of the dikes. That's why I have so much mud on my legs." Rin looked down and saw that his legs were indeed mud streaked. "But that's done, and my father let me go do what I want for awhile."

"Kaede-sama let me go do whatever I wanted today, too. I wanted to work in the garden," Rin said, adjusting the basket she was holding.

"You want to pull weeds?" Nakao asked, incredulously.

She nodded. "Kaede-sama has been very nice to me, and gave me a part of the garden to grow flowers in. It hurts her, some days, to work in the garden."

"My grandmother's like that, too," he said, looking down, nudging a rock with his toe.

"Nakao!"a voice shouted.

The two children turned to look as a boy in his mid-teens came walking up. "That's Sukeo, my brother," Nakao said.

Rin shifted her grip on the hoe she was carrying as she watched the older boy come up. He looked much like his younger brother, but had a worried, out-of-breath look about him. He was about fifteen, and unlike Nakao who still wore his hair in a boy's cut, Sukeo wore his tied up tea-whisk style, like an adult.

"There you are!" the newcomer said. "Father's been looking for you!"

"Oh! I guess I have to go, then" said Nakao. "I'll see you later, Rin-chan."

She waved at him, and turned to go, but was not quite out of earshot when she heard the older boy saying, "What do you think you were doing? Don't you know she's that youkai's girl? No telling what will happen if you get too friendly with her."

Suddenly, Rin felt very lonely.


	8. Plans and Interrruptions

_I do not own InuYasha or any of the characters created by Rumiko Takahashi_

**Yesterday's Tomorrows**

_**Chapter Eight: Plans and Interruptions**_

_The morning sun shines  
with that pure spring-like color -  
how it invites us!  
See how the wild flowers bloom;  
let us walk amid the fields_

He and his guests were seated around a low table.

For once, the main part of the house was unusually calm and free of the bright voices of children at play. Sango had made sure everything was sparkling, and there was a graceful arrangement of early spring flowers on the table in front of them.

Miroku turned the tea cup round and round in his hand, closing his violet eyes for a moment as he let the warmth from the drink rise up and tickle his nose. He opened them again, then took a sip of the bitter liquid. Sango, moving unobtrusively, placed a plate with rice cakes in front of him on the low table, within easy reach of both him and his guests, then withdrew into the back to check on Shippou, who was playing with the girls.

It was a funny thing, the monk thought to himself while looking at the two people who sat around the table. He was noted as a hard negotiator, and pretty much a person who could get people to agree to almost anything, but for this meeting he was nervous. Looking at the well-dressed man in his fine beige and blue on his right hand savoring his tea, and Kaede to his left, Miroku knew he was not in a hostile environment. The monk knew they both wanted this meeting to come out for the best, for both Kagome and InuYasha and for the village, and that among the three of them, they would think of something. But it still made him uneasy. He decided for the moment to keep the tone of the meeting social to begin with, until he got the feeling how they were feeling about the situation. Placing his cup down, and looking at his visitors said, "So, Miko-sama, Tameo-sama, how pleasant that you stop by and visit today."

Tameo, almost as old as Kaede, smiled. His smile was warm and friendly, something that as head of his family and as headman of the village had served him well over the years.

"It is indeed a pleasant day, Houshi-sama. So how goes the work on your plans for the temple?" Tameo said.

"Slowly, Tameo-sama. I think most of the villagers are happy with the old chapel," Miroku replied.

"Some, it is true, are resistant to change," the headman replied. "But change is not necessarily a bad thing, true?"

Miroku nodded. He picked up the tray of rice cakes, and offered it to his guests. Tameo refused, but Kaede looked at the tray and took one. Miroku too, selected one, and took a bite, looking thoughtful.

Tameo picked up his cup and examined it."We have some things changed in this village. We have a priest to tend the chapel where we have honored Kwannon in our own homely way for long years. We have a young woman under the auspices of powerful youkai, here to learn the ways of being a young woman." He swirled the contents of his cup and took a sip. "We have a young hanyou who lives with us. And now, I hear that the young miko-sama who used to stay with us has returned. These are all quite different changes," Tameo said.

"This is true," Miroku said. He placed the rice cake down on his place setting.

"Sometimes," Tameo said, with a small sigh, "it can require such balance, learning how to deal with all the new things. For instance, what shall we do with the hanyou and the young miko? Miko-sama " he said, nodding towards Kaede, "has told me you wish to discuss the affairs of our two young friends today," Tameo said, finishing his tea, and placing the cup down on the table.

Sango returned from the back and sat down next to her husband. She offered more tea and the tray of sweets to each of her guests and her husband.

Miroku nodded.

Kaede looked up at Miroku, and smiled reassuringly."My cousin and I have been giving this some serious thought," Kaede said, her single eye looking the monk over carefully. "We want what's best for both the village and our friends."  
"There are those who would prefer that we kept out all youkai presence, no matter how well intentioned," Tameo said. "Miko-sama and I do not necessarily share this point of view, but there are some, especially some of those of Tsuneo's family, who do not like the fact that InuYasha-sama lives here and that Sesshoumaru-sama is seen frequently around our village. And now since the word has spread through the village that Kagome-sama has returned, and InuYasha has taken her into his home, gossip is starting"

Again Miroku nodded. "InuYasha-sama took Kagome-sama under his protection immediately on her return, but more than that, he expressed to me that he would like there to be a formal wedding," he added. "And, if acceptable, to have the arrangement registered here at the village."

"Good, good. He is an honorable man. There are those about who would come down upon that match, even if she wasn't a miko, but her being what she is may complicate things. But Miko-sama here thinks she has a solution to the problem . . . "

* * *

Rin sat down on the grass examining her garden. There was a small pile of weeds and old leaves and stems gathered in her basket.

The quiet weighed heavily on her, and she sighed, thinking about Nakao, and what his brother Sukeo had said about him being "that Youkai's girl" and therefore dangerous to be around. She picked up a blooming weed, and twirled the small flower in her hand, and began to sing.

"I watched the snow fall,  
in the cold winds of winter.  
He left no footstep  
pressed into the deep whiteness.

"The azaleas bloomed,  
and I looked for him to come --  
I walked through a field,  
but all I found were flowers.

"The summer rains came,  
and I wandered through the wet.  
I could not find him,  
but my sandals fell apart.

"Fireflies danced at night  
amid the autumn grasses -  
full moon came and went,  
I watched the leaves fall alone."

Even though the day was sunny and warm, she felt cold, even sitting there in the sunlight. Suddenly, a shadow fell over her. She looked up to see a burly man with a grizzled chin poking out from beneath his conical straw hat. He wore blue and brown clothes like a merchant, but there was something predatory about his face that made her uneasy.

"My, my, what a pretty song you sing," said the man. "Who do you belong to, pretty one?"

Rin did not like how his eyes took her in, and looked down at her basket of weeds. "I am ward to Kaede, miko of this village," she said.

He squatted down, and lifted her chin up. "I suspect I'll see some more of you, then. I'm going to be here for a while."

Rin winced away from his touch. The man smelled of stale sake and something she couldn't quite name. Suddenly, though, the man was knocked out of her sight.

"Damn it, Jiro, let lone!" roared another voice. "We just get here and you're already trying to cause trouble?"

Jiro rose to his knees. "Fuck, Haru, why'd you do that?"

Haru shoved his foot into Jiro's face.

Rin, not really looking at her rescuer, grabbed the opportunity to run. She fled into the woods surrounding the field, her heart pounding in her ears, until she ran into something strong and white.

"Rin," said Sesshoumaru. "Who has troubled you?"

She looked up into the golden eyes of the Inu Youkai lord and burst into tears.

* * *

Kagome's lips brushed against InuYasha's as he pulled her into his lap.

They broke for air. The afternoon light streamed into the little house, planting warm highlights on his hair and his eyes. The delight in her eyes was very clear. "So you do want a wedding," InuYasha said as he ran his fingers over her cheek. "Miroku told me you would want one."

"Miroku's a smart man," she said, smiling up at him. "Maybe it's silly, but yeah. I know you said I'm your wife, but the ceremony would just make it feel more real to me."

"If it'll make you happy, we'll do it, Koibito," he said. His hand, large and claw tipped, but very gentle when he wanted it to be, brushed against the soft ebony of her hair. "I want you to be happy."

"I am," she replied, smiling.

For a moment, they gazed into each other's eyes, but as the seconds passed, something in the way they looked at each other shifted and heated.

"Wife," InuYasha whispered. He shifted Kagome in his arms, his hand cupping the back of her head as he lowered his mouth to hers, gently brushing his lips then tongue gently across the warm welcoming touch of her lips.

"Husband," she replied. One of her hands slid softly into his silver hair and wrapped around his neck. Her lips parted as his kiss deepened, and their tongues slid over and around each other in a gentle, delicious dance, exploring and tasting. One kiss led to the next, and then another.

Kagome reached up, pulled the tie of his suikan loose. One hand slipped inside of his jacket, but the other ran fingertips across his cheek, gazing into his darkened amber eyes. She brushed her fingers ghost like across his lips. Kissing her fingertip, InuYasha brought that hand down with him, lacing his fingers in with hers and kissed her once again, hungrily.

He kissed her along her cheek, down her jaw. "I want you," he murmured.

"Then have me," Kagome replied, running her hands down his back under his suikan.

"Woman," he moaned.

There was a knock at the entrance. Once, and then it repeated.

"Damn it," Kagome said.

InuYasha looked at her, and suddenly laughed, kissed her on the nose, and stood up. "Later, Koibito," he said, and retying his suikan, he walked to the door.


End file.
